Production of Space

The theory of the production of space—conceived by French philosopher, sociologist, and Marxist intellectual Henri Lefebvre in the 1970s—is a complex yet influential theoretical construct in urban studies and human geography, as well as a significant theoretical intervention into Marxism (Brenner & Elden, 2009; Elden, 2001, 2004; Kipfer et al., 2013; Merrifield, 2013; Shields, 2013; Stanek, 2011). The theory was first elaborated by Lefebvre in the book of the same title published in French in 1974 (Lefebvre, 1974). Following the publication of the book’s English translation in 1991 (Lefebvre, 1991), it became more widely known, critically appraised, and made its way into many academic disciplines. Since then, much of the focus on the theory has been in the fields of geography, urban sociology, and cultural studies (Elden, 2001; Ghulyan, 2019). The production of space theory postulates that space is a social product (Lefebvre, 1991, pp. 26–27), appearing not solely as a passive backdrop or a container for individual or collective human activities; it is re-produced and re-shaped by social, economic, and political forces. Furthermore, it plays a crucial role in the reproduction of social relations and material orderings (Brenner, 2004; Soja, 1980). This approach to the relationships between society and space, social relations, and spatial forms is based on dialectical reasoning. Hence, the proposition is also framed as socio-spatial dialectic (Soja, 1980, 1989) or three-dimensional dialectic (Schmid, 2022). In line with the socio-spatial or three-dimensional dialectical logic, space can be understood as a process (Brenner, 2004; Schmid, 2022), a constant flux of material and non-material assemblages that are shaped by social, economic, or political forces—which in turn are reconstituted by these assemblages. In sum, space as a process is a constantly evolving set of relations. The other key proposition of the theory—closely related to the first one—is that since space is a social product, every society produces its own space. At its face very basic proposition, this has important implications for any Marxist—and thus dialectical materialist—interpretation of the world. With this proposition and the dialectical materialist approach to history, the production of space theory conceptualizes the production of space as consecutive stages of production of absolute, historical, abstract, and contradictory spaces (Boer, 2015; Schmid, 2022; Shields, 2005).